Turkey Putting Trump’s Anti-ISIS Plan To The Test

Turkey and Russia are conducting joint airstrikes against the Islamic State in northern Syria, a move that President-elect Donald Trump has indicated he may pursue.

The Russian military confirmed the airstrikes Wednesday in the first acknowledgement of any such action. The joint airstrikes come as no surprise given an increasingly friendly rapprochement between the two countries. Trump repeatedly said throughout the 2016 election that it would be “great” to “work with Russia” to defeat ISIS.

Feeling increasingly abandoned, Turkey is now a signatory to a Russian brokered Syrian ceasefire and potential peace deal for the Syrian civil war. The major agreement notably does not include the U.S. in any fashion. Russia has indicated it does intend to bring the U.S. in until the later stages of peace negotiations between the Assad regime and members of the opposition.